Archive for the ‘The Word’ Category

Old School, is a fan-favourite film for a whole generation. Filled with endless comic quotability, anyone who has seen and loved the film will be able to spill forth the favourite line from Frank the Tank and company. Almost every line said in the film makes me laugh in one way or another, but I have to be ruthless and choose one. So for this week’s THE WORD I have chosen something from Frank the Tank, which is in my opinion Will Ferrell’s best role to date. It is said at the first party thrown at Mitch’s new house, The Mitch Martin Freedom Festival. Frank has promised his new wife not to drink and is trying to explain to some college guys why he can not do a beer-bong with them as he has plans with his wife for the next day:

Frank: I told my wife I wouldn’t drink tonight. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. You guys have a great time.

Corresponding with this weeks The Big Lebowski review, this segment of THE WORD comes from that very film.

As with any film by the Coen Brothers, The Big Lebowski is filled with some of the funniest and witty dialogue in cinema. Basically anything The Dude or Walter says is ripe for endless quoting by fanboys. Anyways, this weeks chosen word is the opening passage of the film narrated by Sam Elliott’s The Stranger. For best effect, one should listen to it spoken with the deep tumbleweed-sounding gravelly tones of Sam Elliott. But seeing it written is pretty darn good too:

Way out west there was this fella I wanna tell ya about. Goes by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. See, this Lebowski, he called himself “The Dude”. Now, “Dude” – there’s a name no man would self-apply where I come from. But then there was a lot about the Dude that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that’s why I found the place so darned interestin’. See, they call Los Angeles the “City Of Angels”; but I didn’t find it to be that, exactly. But I’ll allow it as there are some nice folks there. ‘Course I ain’t never been to London, and I ain’t never seen France. And I ain’t never seen no queen in her damned undies, so the feller says. But I’ll tell you what – after seeing Los Angeles, and this here story I’m about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin’ every bit as stupefyin’ as you’d seen in any of them other places. And in English, too. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin’ like the good Lord gypped me. Now this here story I’m about to unfold took place in the early ’90s – just about the time of our conflict with Sad’m and the I-raqis. I only mention it because sometimes there’s a man… I won’t say a hero, ’cause, what’s a hero? Sometimes, there’s a man. And I’m talkin’ about the Dude here – the Dude from Los Angeles. Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that’s the Dude. The Dude, from Los Angeles. And even if he’s a lazy man – and the Dude was most certainly that. Quite possibly the laziest in all of Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin’ for laziest worldwide. Sometimes there’s a man, sometimes, there’s a man. Well, I lost my train of thought here. But… aw, hell. I’ve done introduced it enough.

To tie in with this week’s review of the Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero, we have two passages from that very novel for this installment of THE WORD.

Easton Ellis’s first novel, Less Than Zero, tells the story of Clay, a college student on America’s east coast who returns home to Los Angeles over the winter break. The novel explores the nihilistic and debauched lifestyles of the young children of the rich Hollywood elite. Clay is troubled throughout the novel by the world around him but is apathetic in trying to separate himself from his peers.

The first comes form a conversation between Clay and his ex-girlfriend after they sleep together:

I button up my jeans and turn to leave.
“Clay?”
“Yeah, Blair.”
“If I don’t see you before Christmas,” she stops. “Have a good one”.
I look at her a moment. “Hey, you too.”
She picks up the stuffed black cat and strokes its head.
I step out the door and start to close it.
“Clay?” she whispers loudly.
I stop but don’t turn around. “Yeah?”
“Nothing.”

While the film does have it’s flaws, there are some sweet quotes that manage to encapsulate the tone of the film, and indeed the novel from which it was adapted.

And this week we have two separate, but closely related, bits of monologue from the film’s protagonist Richard for you to enjoy (please try and control your enthusiasm). They both relate to the true nature of backpacking through a foreign environment, and that is to forget about home and shut up and enjoy the experience:

“We all travel thousands of miles just to watch TV and check in to somewhere with all the comforts of home, and you gotta ask yourself, what is the point of that?”

AND

“This is where the hungry come to feed. For mine is a generation that circles the globe and searches for something we haven’t tried before. So never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite and never outstay your welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience. And if it hurts, you know what? It’s probably worth it.”

This week’s weekly THE WORD comes from one of my favourite bands, The Clash. The song Lost in the Supermarket appears on the 1979 album London Calling (ranked #8 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 greatest albums of all time). More so than many other punk rock bands, The Clash politicised their lyrics and addressed many social, political and ethical issues of modern times. Lost in the Supermarket is a song that laments the rampant commercialisation of our times and the subsequent isolation one feels while drowning in a mass of consumerism. Lost in the Supermarket indeed:

Lost in the Supermarket – The Clash

I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for the special offer:
Guaranteed Personality

I wasn’t born, so much as I fell out
Nobody seemed to notice me
We had a hedge back home in the suburbs
Over which I never could see

I heard the people who lived on the ceiling
Scream and fight most scarily
Hearing that noise was my first ever feeling
That’s how it’s been all around me

I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for the special offer:
Guaranteed Personality

I’m all tuned in; I see all the programmes
I save coupons from packets of tea
I’ve got my giant hit discotheque album
I empty a bottle, I feel a bit free

The kids in the halls and the pipes in the walls
Make me noises for company
Long distance callers make long distance calls
And the silence makes me lonely

I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for the special offer:
Guaranteed Personality

It’s not here
It disappeared

I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for the special offer:
Guaranteed Personality

I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for the special offer:
Guaranteed Personality

I’m all lost (I’m all lost in the supermarket)
I’m all lost (I can no longer shop happily)
I’m all lost (I came in here for the special offer: Guaranteed Personality)

I’m all lost (I’m all lost in the supermarket)
I’m all lost (I can no longer shop happily)
I’m all lost (I came in here for the special offer: Guaranteed Personality)

I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for the special offer:
Guaranteed Personality

I’m all lost
I’m all lost
I’m all lost

I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for the special offer:
Guaranteed Personality

For this segment of THE WORD we have the opneing line to one of the greatest films ever made, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas.

The film is based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, which tells the true story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), a gangster with ties to the New York Mafia, who ended up as an FBI informant. The films portrays the rough and ruthless but often glamourous lifestyle the wiseguys of the mob revelled in. Goodfellas is wonderfully written, directed and acted and is rightly thought of as a true Scorsese masterpiece.

The opening line (part of Henry Hill’s narration) sets the tone for the film, and right from the get-go you are swept along for the the ride:

This week we have some of the best lyrics in modern popular music. First released on his album Bringing it All Back Home, Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues is a fantastic song with cleverly spun lyrics that are delivered with so much flow. The video clip is damn good too. Check it:

Subterranean Homesick Blues – Bob Dylan

Johnny’s in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in a trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he’s got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It’s somethin’ you did
God knows when
But you’re doin’ it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin’ for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin’ that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone’s tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the D. A.
Look out kid
Don’t matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don’t try “No Doz”
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don’t need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin’ to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
You’re gonna get hit
But losers, cheaters
Six-time users
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool’s
Lookin’ for a new fool
Don’t follow leaders
Watch the parkin’ meters

Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don’t steal, don’t lift
Twenty years of schoolin’
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don’t wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don’t wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don’t work
‘Cause the vandals took the handles